With a well pitched 8 inning performance by the Big Unit and yet another save by Mo Rivera, the Yankees win as Timlin 
surrends loads of runs to Tampa Bay and blows a great effort by Wakefield.
A-Rod’s fielding was great tonight, on a night where he struck out 3 times.
Matt (booed off the field last week) Lawton hit the 2 run Homer that the Johnson & Rivera made hold up the whole game. 
This is 9 out of last 10 for Yanks.
Sigh. No baseball fan outside of New York City wants to see the Yankees in the playoffs.
However, if the Red Sox miss the playoffs, well, that’s damn near as good! Go Indians and White Sox!
Not quite true, there is a boatload of Yankee fans throughout NJ & Connecticut and even in the huge retirement communities of Florida.
I know Yanks are the most hated team, but it felt too good after an entire season where it looked like we wouldn’t make it.
I leave work early tomorrow to get to the game. Toms River to the Bronx, picking up 2 friends on the way.
[hijack]I had been wondering whereabouts in central Jersey you were…if you ever feel like making that long trek over to Brick to take in a beer over a Giants game, lemme know…[/hijack]
<sigh>
All I asked for this season was for the Dodgers to make to the playoffs and the Yankees not to.
I’m 0 for 2.
I refuse to gloat for a variety of reasons, including the team’s flaws and the fact that the East and Wildcard races are absolutely un-callable at this point. Still, it’s the first time they’ve been in first since (I think ESPN says) July 17. It’s nice.
Yanks…that’s the baseball team, right?
I’ve Emailed you, Sounds good.
I just hope we can stay at least 1 game ahead of Boston going into Fenway. I like the idea of only needing one to force a playoff at Yankee stadium. (we won the coin toss last week).
Well, if you want to get literal, I’m currently outside of NYC (at least, until 6:30 Friday evening). Plus my father and brother live in Suffolk County. We all want to see the Yankees in the playoffs. 
And all is right with the world.
I have a gut feeling that before this is all done, the White Sox will be the ones on the outside looking in, and Sox/Yankees won’t particularly matter so much anyways.
Hey, the Yanks aren’t in it yet! They are a mere half game ahead of the Sox, and the Sox a mere half game behind the Indians in the wildcard. With a handful of games left, we could easily have the Sox take the AL East and the Indians take the wildcard.
Alls I gots to say is “Go Yanks!” That, and I’m not from NYC and I’m happy they’re in first.
Of course that could happen. I am just happy today that we are in first.
BTW Red Sox are 1 game back in Wildcard.
As a passionate Yankees fan of the 70s’ and a tepid Yankees fan now, I say, “Nice.” But as I said earlier this year, this season reminds me of 1964.
That is, in 1964, the end of the old Yankee dynasty was in sight. All the stars who’d made them a team for the ages (Mantle, Ford, et al.) were over the hill, and the minor league cupboard was pretty much bare. They had one last pennant run in them, and took the Cards to 7 games in the World Series. But the next year, they nosedived.
My sense is, the Yankees have way too much invested (and not just financially) in guys whose best years are behind them. I still think they should win the division, and COULD go all the way again.
But if I were Joe Torre, I’d resign at the end of this season- because the next manager is going to be Johnny Keane II. And I foresee a lengthy dry spell.
That said, I have to add- we Yankees fans have our faults, but the past year has proven one thing conclusively: Red Sox fans are even more repulsive and obnoxious when they’re on top than they were during their years of whining and self-pity!
Yankees fans are everywhere … even south of the Mason-Dixon line. 
Let’s go, Yankees!
Amen!
Once the Orioles began their looooong, post-All-Star-break slide, i knew that the baseball season could only salvage some vestige of meaning for me if the Yankees missed the playoffs. I even entertained the hope that, with 8 games between the two teams in the last two weeks, the Orioles might be the ones to do it. But, no, the useless birds have lost 3 in a row to New York, and will probably lose at least 3 of the other 5.
There is still some hope, though. While the Yankees are 9-1 in their last 10 games, those 10 games have included 6 one-run victories and 1 one-run loss. Any team that consistently plays in that many very close games will probably get burned sooner or later. As the Washington Nationals found out after their run of one-run victories ended.
Indeed. Especially the Indians. Just 2.5 back of Chicago now, with a four-game series against the woeful Royals starting today, followed by a three-game set against the improved-but-still-pretty-bad Devil Rays.
I think you’re probably right.
I don’t agree. Despite their recent slump, i think that, out of the four contending teams in the AL East and AL Central, the White Sox are still the surest bet to make the post-season.
Chicago has 11 games left. Even if they go 4-7 over that period, Boston (which has 10 games left) would still have to go 8-2 to beat them outright, and 7-3 to force a playoff for the Wild Card.
Seems rather unlikely to me. Especially since the White Sox have series coming up against Minnesota and Detrioit, both of whom have been just as bad a Chicago lately.
The parallels are somewhat similar on the surface, but the factors that combined to destroy the Yanks of the 60’s was a combination of:
The New MLB draft that was put in to hurt the Yanks and balance the leagues.
The mentioned aging team
The extremely depleted farm system.
New ownership that did not understand running a team.
3 years removed from the greatest, sneakiest, GM of all Time.
What is different with this team.
Core of team is Jeter & Arod you are in much better shape then Maris & Mantle.
The farm system is rebuilding, instead of continuing to decline.
The Boss will continue to spend until he is in the grave and it looks like his son in law understands you need to spend money to make boat loads of money.
We lose the salaries of Brown, Bernie, Karsay, Gordon, Stanton, Matsui and many others this year. The only overpriced contracts left will be Giambi, Moose & Johnson.
They desperately need a CF, this could be hard. I keep thinking Wright for Cameron might help both NY teams.
Matsui must be Re-signed, he will cost more.
We’re okay on starters for next year, but like most teams are in great need of middle relief.
Posada & Sheff are getting older. Last year of contract coming up.
Cano and Wang are a big boost to the team.